Don’t get mad or just dismiss when a Christian says Jesus is the answer to this culture of hate and fear. Let me try to explain to those who just blanket reject the idea that Jesus is the answer and explain why it is a viable solution or at least a step in the right direction.
When Christians say things like this they are sharing experientially things they have witnessed in their own lives and the lives of others how Jesus so totally changed and turned someone’s life around that it could only be attributed as miraculous and supernatural. We have seen impossible situations turned around for good. We have seen people healed on many levels of need where pills, therapy and doctors have failed.
When Christians make these claims it has nothing to do with religion or going to church. It is not some propaganda effort to convert people to their religion. It is not coming under a set of legalistic guidelines and restrictions that we impose upon ourselves and claim our misery as proof of self-righteousness and favor from some deity that demands we sacrifice and bow before him.
Fact is there is evil in this world. Anyone who denies that is a blind fool. And yes there is a demonic supernatural force driving it, steering it. No, I’m not blaming the devil for everything. I blame humanity because humans have the power to choose good or evil, right or wrong. It is our responsibility. But the devil has made a good case for making self-serving choices. He has manipulated humanity through pleasures, over sexuality, selfishness, vanity, power, racism, hate, division. He has built entire religions around it like Islam, Atheism and even in some Christian churches. He has pulled the ultimate bait and switch by manipulating and creating a culture where people don’t even believe he exists. But again, this does not excuse humanity. Things only have power over us that we give it. WE ALL have the power to choose. The devil, religion or God can’t force us to do things against our will.
So, why Jesus? Because no matter how twisted and distorted people have made Jesus to be, creating a self-serving selfish religion that people have mistakenly accepted as what Christians mean when they speak of Jesus it does not cancel out whom He actually is. Read the Bible for yourself, let the scriptures speak to you, read about what Jesus and the apostles actually taught and don’t go by what this culture has painted him to be. Don’t dismiss him because a religious movement used his name to justify their hate and destruction during the Crusades. Don’t dismiss him because some charismatic self-serving, self-proclaimed prophet in an Armani suit has built an empire bilking naive followers into giving their money to him or her. Don’t dismiss him because of some so-called church that waves hate signs in public.
At the heart of the teachings and message of the Bible is a message that people without the help of a God who cares for them, loves them and is willing to empower them will make bad choices; choices that are self-serving, choices that give them gratification in that moment with no consideration or thought of how it affects anyone else. At the heart of its message is to realize that we as human beings do have the power to choose and that our choices do affect the world around us. At the heart of the message is something most people’s pride will not admit: That we cannot do it without supernatural assistance. We were created with a spirit and a conscience that is weak and fallen and God wants to come alongside us not to condemn us, not to organize another religion, not to make us feel like worms…He wants to set us free. He wants to revive our broken spirits. He wants us to be all that we can be. He wants to give us the edge we need in time of temptation to make the right choice. He wants to empower us. He wants to make us one with light and love. He wants us to love others as much as or more than we love ourselves. He wants to be our friend and mentor. He wants to be the way, the truth and the life.
He offers life and change and unity and hope and peace….And he offers to supply the power to make it happen. He offers to change our nature and connect us back to him and to one another. His message is we all need his help whether we consider ourselves to be good or bad.
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